


The Head and the Heart

by orphan_account



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 10:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7264729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma's life is complicated. Emma, Regina, and Hook navigate Neverland together. Emma navigates hear heart and love.<br/>Warning: There's a lot of Hook in this story. But, it is endgame Swan Queen.<br/>A study of why people stay in relationships that aren't ideal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Head and the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of Hook in this story. I like him not a bit, unless he's boffing Charming under a waterfall (and even Charming I reserve for Snow,) but in this story I decided not to only describe him through the voice of Regina as unwashed and leeching as should rightfully be done, but also make him as tolerable a version of himself as could be wrought. Sometimes an objective view of your relationship concludes that it is fucked up, but on the inside of it, you can't detect it.  
> I wrote this for me. I apologize if people think it's not a depiction of realistic relationships, but it was me working through my relationship realizations and turmoil. I am 100% a Swan Queen shipper, but I believe there are different kinds of love. (There _must_ be, or everyone would be Snow and Charming.) If the lovely princess Emma chooses to do some dates with Hook, I respect that. So, I endeavored to try to understand why.

"Everyone I've ever been with is gone."

The insistent pirate's ship was rocky almost always. It wasn't only when one jumped from side to side on the deck, or was thrashed by waves caused by Medusa, or assaulted by mermaids that the floor one was standing on gave a sickening tilt. That's just what a boat did, Emma had come to accept. Surprisingly, Killian Hook had brought into her life a vehicle, a setting, she hadn't had before. Emma sort of figured that after 11 years of doing whatever she well wanted, cavorting with lads and ladies of all walks of life, and rambling listlessly from place to place, she had lived it all. But she had not yet ...been with? someone who lived on a pirate ship.

In the autumn leaves of yellow and red, once upon a time, Regina Mills, the Evil Queen, the Mayor, the other mother of her child, and the woman she sometimes wondered aimlessly about, had stood under the maple tree outside of her courthouse and said "Until you have something more than disdain to throw my way, you're going to stay away from me. And, more importantly, from Henry. You don't get to see _my_ son unless I say so."

Regina's fingers lay wrapped around the railing of the pirate ship now, concern on her face, dark hair whipping around her face in the wind; dressed in elegant forbidding of a cobalt blazer, berry silk shirt, black camisole visible where her scarf had flown aver her shoulders and her shirt had been unbuttoned; pure black jeggings below it, and black ankle boots. Her facial expression was one that had been flitting across Emma's face the entire journey; in bouts of despair, her mind had sunk into knowledge that Henry might be in more trouble than they could retrieve him from.

"I'm going to be staying right here with you, Lass," Hook said. His eyes were wide and soft, and he looked into hers, unwavering.

Emma broke the connection when she felt it became more than her mind could currently contain. She changed the point of her visual focus and changed her tone to change the mood. "If Henry doesn't-- get back..."

"I'm going to stay with him, too. He'll be with you, soon. There's no question of that; don't let your mind go there."

Emma ducked her head and felt the winds hit her. She clenched her fist, holding onto empty space, and herself.

She breathed deeply in through her nose, and released it from her mouth (something she had been taught at prison by a group counselor as a strategy to calm down to prevent violent reactions-- not that Emma was ever at risk for violence.)

Then she turned back to Hook. "I've heard Neverland is a big place. Tell me everything you know."


End file.
